Invitation to Shanghai

Photo Credit: Richard Chicoine iCopyright 2009
Excellence...Innovation...People...Leadership

"It is the foremost task - and responsibility -
of our generation to
re-imagine
our enterprises and institutions, public and private."
- Tom Peters

Innovation expert, Tom Peters is in Shanghai this week. LTB can participate...his 4 slide shows are on line, and I think you'll enjoy clicking through them. Short on time? Choose the Innovation Slides, in keeping with our next month's theme. See the link below.

"Whoever tries the most stuff, and screws the most stuff up and most rapidly launches the next try, wins. Failures are not to be tolerated. They are to be celebrated!"

http://www.tompeters.com/

• Excellence
• Innovation
• People
• Leadership

Enjoy Tom's wisdom about "thinking weird"... it can lead to your tipping point goal!

Create? Innovate? What's the Diff?

Photo Credit: Richard Chicoine iCopyright 2009 ~

Take a closer look at the garden: In celebration of Earth Day!

Define The Diff For Me

"If you want to change the world, play with it first." - Stephanie Olsen, CINET

"Act as if. Live it. Weave us into a possible future."
- Evelyn Rodriguez

When I called Ian McCormack from innovation-award-winning Wardrop Engineering to discuss his presentation on "Innovative Leadership" for our May learning day, he asked: "So, how would YOU define innovation?"

Excellent question! Assumptions should always be checked out, right?

Especially so, since your reading for the month is heavily focussed on Herrmann's chapters (all of Part IV) on "Creativity" . (Scroll down for the whole reading list...)

Take a look at this from the Copyblogger:
“One of the buzzwords you hear a lot in the business world these days, is “Innovation”.

Yes, it’s a genuinely worthy thing to aspire to. Genuine innovation creates lots of genuine value, every young intern knows this. Which is why people like to throw it around like confetti. It’s one of those words that sound good in meetings, regardless of how serious one is about ACTUALLY innovating ANYTHING.

Here’s some friendly advice for all you Innovation-buzzword fanboys:

You don’t get to be more innovative, until you make yourself more creative FIRST.

“Innovative” is an “external” word. It can be measured. It generally talks about things that have been tested properly and found to have worked in the real world.

“Creative”, however, is more of an “internal” word. It’s subjective, it’s murkier. It’s far harder to measure, it’s far harder to define. It’s an inward journey, not outward. Which is why a lot of people in business try to keep the word out of their official lexicon, preferring instead more neutral, more externally-focused language like “Value”, “Excellence”, “Quality” and yes, “Innovation”.

Source: Hugh McLeod http://www.gapingvoid.com

For More of this blogpost on Creativity and Innovation, check out http://lateralaction.com/articles/creativity-innovation/

Posing Ian's question to you: "How would YOU define "Innovation", especially when building a "knowledge economy" in our city?

~~~~~

READ FOR MAY 14 @ Lakehead University

May 14 session on "Innovation" at Lakehead University.

1. Herrmann's Whole Brain Business Book:
The "CREATIVITY" Chapters in PART IV

"Extraordinary people visualize not what is possible or probably, but rather what is impossible. And by visualizing the impossible, they begin to see it as possible."

Applying Creativity and Innovation in Organizations (Chapter 21)
The Brain is the Source (Chapter 22)
Managing through Multiple Processes (Chapter 23)
Going Creative (Chapter 24)
Who Me? Creative? (Chapter 29)

2. Dr. Brad's Chapter 7: Complete your choice of "Mastery Goal Setting" exercise (in preparation for June's graduation).

3. If you haven't already, read Gladwell's Tipping Point here: :http://www.gladwell.com/tippingpoint/index.html

Happy EARTH Day! And, it's Volunteer Week!

Little By Little

Photo Credit: Richard Chicoine iCopyright 2009

A New Economy Doesn't March In...

It Enters on Cat's Paws...

It's so easy to walk past an alleyway, and not notice the innovation, the design, the symmetries of scale. When we shot the photo above, no-one else stopped to admire the view through the walkway connecting the buildings, or the juxtaposition of old and new. That's what happens to large scale change in our community as well. Unless we happen to be "attached" in some way, well, we just don't understand the scale of the change.

The LTB class this week meets at the Whalen Building... the PUC down at the marina...we drive past regularly. We chose to meet at the CEDC on purpose, because this was the headquarters for major changes in 1913, just as it is in 2009.

1913

The Whalen building, built in 1913 by James Whalen, a logging tycoon, was one of the first really high office buildings in the area.

James Whalen (1869–1929) was a Canadian businessman and entrepreneur based in Port Arthur, Ontario, with interests in the forest industries, shipbuilding, dredging, and towing. From a modest beginning as a timber contractor in the 1890s, he built an impressive business empire in various Great Lakes marine businesses.

Companies associated with James Whalen
Western Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company
Port Arthur Shipbuilding Company, PASCO
Great Lakes Dredging Company
Canadian Towing and Wrecking Company
Dominion Towing and Salvage Company
Whalen Pulp and Paper Company (British Columbia)
Canada West Coast Navigation Company
Canada Pebble Company

September 07, 2007
Thunder Bay Takes Step Toward Creation Of Technology Cluster

Provincial Funds To Inject New Life Into Downtown Heritage Building
SUDBURY – The McGuinty government is helping Thunder Bay create a professional data centre that will act as a catalyst to attract and secure new economic activity in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector, Northern Development and Mines Minister Rick Bartolucci has announced.

The data centre will be a key component of a new technology cluster in the city’s downtown north core, where the city-owned Whalen building will be retrofitted to accommodate ICT-related companies. The project is expected to strengthen existing businesses while generating new economic activity for the future.

“The Whalen ICT Cluster will help us build our capacity to provide important services, such as comprehensive data and web services, that are currently unavailable through local sources,” said Thunder Bay-Atikokan MPP Bill Mauro. “Having a quality cluster of ICT-related services will support all sectors of the city’s economy.”

Under its Infrastructure and Community Development program, the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) is providing $1 million to the recently formed Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission to retrofit the Whalen building and develop the data centre in collaboration with Thunder Bay Telephone and Confederation College.

There's more to the Knowledge Based Economy...bring your walking shoes, your curiosity... see you on the 16th at 8:40!

Does Thunder Bay Have Tunnel Vision?

Photo Credit: Richard Chicoine iCopyright 2009

How to Build the Knowledge Based Economy



Some might say that Northern Ontario has “tunnel vision” disease. We know that change is happening in our traditional industries;

perhaps its change by default.

How does a “knowledge based economy” actually work?

Some might say that they don’t know the actual definition for terms “knowledge based economy”, and “knowledge workers”.

Some might define them as merely rhetoric and buzz words. If you listen carefully, you’ll hear that these phrases are used in the

context of what a community is NOT these days.

Thunder Bay, for example, is NOT a pulp and paper town anymore. We’re NOT an exporting port, and we’re no longer the headquarter terminal of the grain elevator industry. We’re NOT a mining hub either.

So when we add the phrase, “we’re becoming a knowledge based community”, the instant connection is to the medical fields, including the medical school and research/DNA labs. It’s much more than that.

Some might say, that they don’t know who is leading the pack to regenerate our economy, our natual resources and beliefs about our City developing “knowledge based economy”. Many do not know who is driving the effort and how it’s actually happening.

We could identify “the Economic Development Office”, or “The Mayor and Council” or even “Lakehead University” or “TB Regional Health Sciences Centre”. We do know that something new is happening in pockets around town. This strategy belongs to many, collaboratively and at time unconsciously.

As leaders, how much do you - personally - really know

about this transformation to knowledge generation as the backbone of our future?

Here’s the first concept for you to consider.

If the larger economy is based on knowledge, then individuals within their own organizations need to also transform into “learning mindsets.”

Knowledge economy ↔ social innovation generation in the community at large ↔ learning organizations ↔ an innovation mindset as leaders ↔ you, as a role model for knowledge workers

Let’s work this model backwards.

1. As a leader:

What is your role in the generation of new ways of thinking about the work you do within the context of a knowledge based economy?

How can leaders collaborate to develop a “learning mindset” in our community? in your organization?

2. If you’ve always wondered about “Learning Organizations”, here’s a quick background.

Three definitions of a learning organization:

1. Learning organizations [are] organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together. (Senge 1990)

2. The Learning Company is a vision of what might be possible. It is not brought about simply by training individuals; it can only happen as a result of learning at the whole organization level. A Learning Company is an organization that facilitates the learning of all its members and continuously transforms itself. (Pedler et. al. 1991)

3. Learning organizations are characterized by total employee involvement in a process of collaboratively conducted, collectively accountable change directed towards shared values or principles. (Watkins and Marsick 1992)


As a knowledge based leader, what are your "tipping point" goals for driving a knowledge based community?

Lots to think about!

If you’re interested in learning more, just google “Peter Senge”.

Next week: Waterloo’s example of Social Innovation Generation!

Contest! If you are the first to identify the sister city location in this week's photo, you win a prize, courtesy of the Easter bunny. Go to http://www.xowhat.blogspot.com/ and click on the blog's "comment" link with your answer and your name.

CAP Groups: Remember April 9!